At the very moment I started drafting this post I was crouched under a Satsuma plum tree, with the bees and fruit flies fighting for the over-ripe fruit that had fallen to the ground. I, on the other hand, just needed somewhere dry to wait until the rain passed.

I had been out picking plums in the middle of the orchard, when the ominous dark clouds crept up on me and caught be by surprise. I knew the rain was coming, but under the overgrown trees, fuelled by so many recent downpours, I didn’t quite see how close it was getting.

It wasn’t long until the cheeky Currawongs also joined me and started nibbling on the fruit of the remaining two trees I hadn’t made it to yet. Their tweets almost sounded like faint chuckles at my current state, crouching for shelter.

As it turned out, after a few taste tests while stuck under the tree, the plums that I had been picking were ripe and ready to go and would not make the trip to the farmers’ markets. So as the rain came down on me and the freshly picked plums, I plotted their journey straight to the kitchen as I waited for the shower to pass.

We are used to rain, especially in our region, but at this time of year we usually don’t get as much. There is often an overnight shower or a few downpours but not enough to halt picking in the middle of harvest. Needless to say, on this particular day there were many anxious farmers waiting for the rain to stop and hoping that the crops wouldn’t ripen too much on the trees before they were able to be picked.

After a short wait, Dad came to my rescue with a jacket, followed soon after by my hubby with the ute. Both had been stuck on the other side of the orchard trying to pick some Gala apples.

The plums and I had been rescued. I was a bit soggy and sticky and the fruit soon would be too, once it hit my stove. Most of the plums were transformed into a sweet and simple plum dessert sauce, however some made their way into an extra special cake also 🙂